ROCKFORD — Sgt. Kurt Whisenand runs through the cold fall air with his police-issued AR-15 semi-automatic rifle ready to fire, hustling for cover behind the first of four wooden pallets.

The Rockford Police Department detective shoves the rifle barrel through the first of three ports in the pallet, this one marked with yellow paint. Whisenand looks down the gun sight, scanning the four painted metal plates lined up in front of a huge dirt mound 75 yards down the firing range.

Whisenand sees the plate and squeezes the trigger. The rifle booms. A puff of dust sprays off the mound as the bullet misses and burrows into the dirt.

Whisenand takes a knee, fits the rifle through the next opening in the pallet and the rifle booms again. This time the bullet rings off a metal plate with a satisfying ping.

Welcome to firearm training for the Rockford Police Department.

Officers drill to prepare for all sorts of situations based on real-world events and experiences here and from across the country.

Officers in Illinois must qualify at least once a year with pistols. Most law enforcement agencies add their own additional requirements.

All 283 sworn Rockford police officers, from seasoned SWAT veterans to rookie cops, must qualify annually with pistols and rifles. Much of the work is scheduled from September to November. More than 45 officers trained this week.

Located in a secluded rural firing range west of Rockford, the firing course is more than 100 yards long.

Qualifying requires hitting a target 70 percent of the time and usually is done from relatively comfortable positions.

Handguns are fired from 5, 7, 15 and 25 yards away under strict time limits.

With rifles, officers get five chances to fire two rounds in four seconds from 15 yards; 25 seconds to fire five rounds, reload and fire five more rounds from 25 yards; 50 seconds to fire 10 rounds from 50 yards; and 90 seconds to fire 10 rounds from 100 yards.

But qualifying is the minimum.

Aldrich said the department uses qualification requirements as a chance to drill advanced firearm skills and techniques. The main goal is to make sure all officers know how to operate the rifles safely and effectively, he said.

The course is purposefully set up to be difficult and in some ways uncomfortable, often forcing officers to shoot from awkward and muddy positions, Investigator Ed King said.

"Each port is in kind of a funky position that we expect them to work through," King said. "The stuff we did for qualification out there was nice and comfortable for test taking. They have demonstrated competency ... now we are going to give them something advanced."

After firing from the four rifle positions, the officers sprint across the firing range for cover behind a tall wooden structure. They draw a sidearm from a holster and shoot at a row of several more steel plates — not an easy task as they're out-of-breath from running the field.

Still, the training is fun, said Nicole Arnold, nearing the end of her second year as a police officer. The officers keep a fire going in a barrel to warm up between turns on the course. They chat and joke over the fire.

"I wish we could do this more," Arnold said. "When I was first hired as a police officer, it was the first time I ever shot a gun. They said that was good because I didn't have any bad habits, but the more you shoot the better you get."